Aces eliminated

4:00 a.m. EST, May 3, 2012|Doyle Woody, Anchorage Daily News

The Alaska Aces' season ended on a somber note, as eventually will be the case for 19 clubs in the ECHL.

Las Vegas' 3-1 win at Sullivan Arena on Wednesday night -- its third straight victory on Alaska's home ice -- earned the Wranglers the Western Conference title and the franchise's second trip to the Kelly Cup Finals.

The defending Kelly Cup champion Aces, denied a fourth trip to the Finals, dropped four straight games to the Wranglers after winning the opener on the road in the best-of-7 series.

Las Vegas awaits the winner of the Eastern Conference finals, where the Florida Everblades seized a 2-1 series lead Wednesday night with a 7-0 pummeling of the visiting Kalamazoo K-Wings, the club Alaska beat in five games last spring to claim the second Kelly Cup in franchise history.

The Wranglers proved too dynamic, too fast, too skilled and too stingy for the Aces, who could never crack goaltender Joe Fallon (17 saves) for more than two goals in a single game.

Las Vegas in its three wins at Sullivan also fed Alaska a heavy dose of Eric Lampe, Judd Blackwater and Adam Miller. The Wranglers' top line combined for six goals and nine assists in that stretch, or one more goal than the entire Aces team.

Gerald Coleman stopped 24 shots for the Aces.

The Wranglers did not generate a single shot on goal in the third period until Josh Lunden's short-handed empty-net goal with 2.4 seconds left.

The teams blew through a scoreless second period in which the Wranglers outshot the Aces, 12-4. Stretching back to the last five-plus minutes of the first period, Las Vegas owned a 22-7 advantage in shots across that span of 25-plus minutes.

Alaska's best chance in the period came midway through, when Fallon made a point-blank pad save on Garry Nunn, who fired off Nick Mazzolini's centering pass from the left corner.

Coleman answered with a terrific pad save of his own, dropping into the butterfly position to snuff Eric Lampe's backhanded redirection with about four minutes to go in the period.

The Aces got the start they coveted -- they opened the scoring for the first time since their Game 1 victory -- yet still went to intermission trailing, 2-1.

The game exploded off the opening drop, with Aces winger Chris Bruton immediately fighting Adam Huxley and Aces winger Jordan Kremyr fighting Robbie Smith. Bruton and Huxley received game misconducts -- referee Ryan Murphy ruled the Bruton-Huxley bout a secondary altercation, which carries an automatic game misconduct for the combatants.

Aces winger Dan Kissel, who has easily been the club's most dynamic player in the series, furnished a 1-0 lead just past the five-minute mark when he beat Fallon with a 55-foot, power-play slap shot off the rush. Kissel carried the puck through neutral ice on right wing, danced to the middle of the ice and unloaded a shot past the glove of Fallon, who no doubt would like that one back.

Still, the Wranglers responded in short order, forging a 1-1 tie nine minutes later on Lampe's power-play rebound goal, which came after Coleman stopped a drive from defenseman Jeff May. But former Aces winger Blackwater kicked the puck to Lampe, who racked his third goal in the last three games.

Las Vegas took a 2-1 lead -- and that marked the first lead change of the series -- near period's end on a designed play that has tortured the Aces.

Adam Miller collected the puck on the wall in his own zone and rifled a cross-ice stretch pass to Eric Lampe at the Aces blue line. Aces defenseman Steve Ward sniffed out the play and confronted Lampe on the boards, but the center juked past him and fired a shot on Coleman. Coleman made the save, but Blackwater backhanded home the rebound left in the crease.

Las Vegas carried the late stages of the period, outshooting the Aces 10-3 in the last five-plus minutes to earn a 14-8 advantage in shots for the period.

Find Doyle Woody's blog at adn.com/hockeyblog or call him at 257-4335.